According to one survey the French are the most pessimistic people on
earth, and it's not just because of the state of emergency born of
terrorism.
The quaint streets of a town like Lille consume a fierce
debate about immigration and idÅentity, while a quarter of
France's young people are unemployed.
I've come here in search of those proposing radical solutions
and shifting to the political extremes.
In the centre of Lille I'm led to down an alleyway into a building
straight out of a pantomime or a fairy tale.
This is what's known as the citadel, at first glance it
looks like a medieval hunting lodge.
It's a drinking club full of hipsters and young professionals,
yet also a sanctuary from the 21st century, presided over by Joan of
Arc, the French heroine burned at the stake 500 years ago.
But look more closely...
Let's hunt the Islamist says one sign, while on the
top shelf there is an old tin of chocolate powder which anti-racist
groups.
Of supermarkets.
These are the all white men and women of
Generation Identitaire, planning to distribute leaflets and publish a
new magazine.
A club for young people with extreme right-wing views
which describes itself as a declaration
of war.
Generation Identitaire or GI is the youth movement pledging to reconquer
France from what it sees as the Arab and African enemy.
It has a few thousand members in over 120,000
lakes on Facebook.
This was a demonstration in Paris last year.
It's not part of Marine le Pen's National front, it's too extreme for
that.
Though some of Marine le Pen's officials began their political
careers in the ranks of Generation Identitaire.
The GI leader in Lille said they don't just want to reduce
immigration but to remove the vast majority of France's ethnic
minorities, especially Muslims.
This is GI's boxing club in the southern city of Lyon.
The battle to defend Europe apparently beginning
with personal fitness.
At first we were told we could visit, but after
the questions we asked at the club in Lille, that invitation was
cancelled.
The group's slick promotional videos include this one
about the GI summer school in the French Alps.
If these regimented lines of recruits resemble
propaganda put out by Isis, it stands to reason that if a small
minority of French Muslims have been radicalised, so have a small
minority of French nationalists, too.
And how could of them props possibly be racist if the concept
many of simply doesn't exist?
Last September the citadel bar was open to nonmembers for the first
time.
Just one night a week, for what he called sincere patriot.
Anti-racist groups in Lille responded with this demonstration of
their own, claiming the bar was itself a backward concept and should
be closed.
Some in the bar refused to be filmed, but we've seen no conclusive
evidence that its members engage in violence.
The police are still investigating an incident in the
town in November.
Clara, A Communist activist, was out celebrating a
friend's birthday at a restaurant when the party came under attack.
What was the weapon they used against you?
It was...
Did they punch somebody?
Yes, a young boy who was 17.
He was Turkish.
How do you know the people that attacked you
came from the bar?
They told us they were activists from Generation
Identitaire.
They were pretty clear about it?
Yes, completely clear.
We didn't ask the question, they told
us.
It is completely clear.
I'm afraid of these people, you know?
Of course, we all are.
This man said he hadn't heard of this incident, he preferred talking
about GI's help for the homeless, as long as they are what he calls "Of
pure French origin".
Including this man, who appeared at the door.
Then there are his safety patrols on the Lille Metro system, designed, he
said, to reassure passengers, and he's happy to condemn violence when
it from a certain quarter.
If you want to find one of the intellectual heroes of Generation
Identitaire's thinking, you have to travel deep into the countryside of
south-west France, close to the Pyrenees.
To the medieval and remote village which has a population of
less than 200.
Hello, nice to see you.
Where the Lord of the manor, living in a 14th century Shatov is this
man.
Now 70, he came up with the theory of the great replacement.
His belief that the local French
population is being replaced by Africans in a reverse colonisation.
Their biggest foreign to patient, he says, since the Nazis invaded France
in 1940.
I think there is an invasion, I think there is a colonisation and
Europe is colonised by Africa in a much deeper way that Europe ever
colonised Africa.
Because the colonisation is now demographic, so
it's much more serious.
He thinks the National front don't go far enough in restricting
immigration.
His solution is far more drastic.
I would force to leave people who don't want to be European or French,
if they want to live in a mostly African or Muslim way, we say, you
best leave.
This that sounds like ethnic cleansing.
It's like saying, if you're not French enough for me, you
have to leave.
Yes, if you are not French enough for France, you are a foreign
people.
He that the is old publisher in Paris when work with him any more
but from his ancient fortress he continues to predict the battle
between civilisations on French soil.
They call us, call me a xenophobe.
I don't think I'm a xenophobe at all,
they're changing the meaning of every word.
It seems the perfect word for you, you are frightened of
foreigners.
I'm frightened of foreigners taking over my country.
So you're a xenophobe?
No, a xenophobe is somebody who does not
like foreigners.
I adore foreigners, I want them to stay foreigners.
He has paid visits to a Generation
Identitaire bar and says he very much admires the group, and some
share his belief if it isn't reversed it could mean war.
GI is certainly not hiding in the shadows.
If anything it is emerging from them, with issues of identity
and immigration looming large in this election season, and certainly
not about to disappear.